Taxpayer funding has partial overlap with slave labor and with theft. It takes people’s wealth by force, regardless of whether they agree or disagree with what the government is using the wealth for. Therefore taxpayer funding should be used highly conservatively – in limited ways when we really can't figure out an alternative. It should be a last resort, not something used casually. There are worse things one can say about taxes. This is a limited, modest statement that all reasonable people ought to be able to agree with it. But instead we live in a nightmare world where most people seem to think it’s good to use $200,000,000 of taxes on a project just because they expect the value from the project – after successful completion within the budget – to be $220,000,000, or because the project promotes some value they care deeply about but find it difficult to voluntarily raise $200,000,000 for.
Messages (2)
>It takes people’s wealth by force, regardless of whether they agree or disagree with what the government is using the wealth for.
I'm not sure if most people notice the importance of the different means used to achieve something, like through consent/persuasion vs force/authority. They just think about the ends, but not of how to achieve them. So it is easier to be fooled by bias if you don't think about the process of achieving some end.
>we live in a nightmare world where most people seem to think it’s good to use $200,000,000 of taxes on a project [...] because the project promotes some value they care deeply about but find it difficult to voluntarily raise $200,000,000 for.
Scientist in Brazil spend a bunch of time arguing why science is important for a society and so the gov should invest more in it. But they don't argue on why the gov, instead of free people, should be the ones doing it.
They don't mind that they are arguing for the existence of authorities on what's good for the people. Actually, I think they want to be the authorities. Total disregard for fallibilism and the scientific traditions.